A blog maintained by the team working to hold
oil giant Chevron accountable for its human rights
and environmental abuses in Ecuador

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Shareholders can
now reasonably question whether Chevron CEO John Watson is fit to lead
America’s second-largest energy company. Increasingly, Watson is acting
like a palace dictator surrounded by yes men who only deliver good news as the
streets rage in protest.

Recently, Watson
ventured out of corporate headquarters and entered what he thought would be a
friendly setting at the prestigious Council On Foreign Relations in New York
City.

Even there, he was
confronted by the Ecuador reality.

After his remarks,
the first question that hit Watson was from a Wall Street Journal editor who
asked about the Ecuador liability that he said was “dogging” the company.
Watson had this to say in response:

"We are
largely winning in the court of public opinion. You see much less written
because anyone who has done their homework knows it’s a fraud and so we’re
winning in the court of the public opinion, we’re making great progress in the
courts but yes we do have to fight and we’ll fight it till we win."

Chevron now faces
asset seizure actions targeting $15 billon in company assets around the world,
including massive oil fields in Brazil and Canada critical to the company’s
long-term strategic growth. In the meantime, Watson’s lead U.S. law
firm fighting the litigation – Gibson Dunn & Crutcher -- has been slammed
for committing ethical
violations on behalf of Chevron.

The Ecuador case is
not only costing Chevron massive sums in legal fees, but is putting Chevron at
a competitive disadvantage worldwide. The company already is being forced
to suspend planned investments in places where it faces asset seizure actions.

Watson believes
much less is being written about the case? Click on the links below and
see just how out of touch Watson has become.